Workplace abuse is something that is easily swept under the rug, no matter how severe. In many organizations, it has been largely normalized as well. However, abuse in the workplace can take a heavy toll on victims, which is why it is more important than ever to fight and eliminate it.

the main points

At its core, workplace bullying is a work culture problem, not an individual problem.
Bullying occurs in organizations that condone or encourage toxic behaviors such as gossip, manipulation, exclusion, and sabotage.
Healthy Work Cultures provides multi-source feedback, assessment of exposure to workplace abuse, and development of workplace bullying policies.
How do organizations eliminate bullies in the workplace?
The first step is to ask a better question, because, at its core, bullying is not an individual problem but a systemic construct that exists at the level of work culture.

Although a bully may seek employment in a variety of organizations, so that they can thrive and benefit from their bag of tricks, the organization must encourage or at least condone behaviors such as gossip, manipulation, exclusion, sabotage, and unethical decision-making.

In such toxic environments, when new employees enter the workplace, they quickly get an explicit or implicit message that they must adopt such behaviors or risk becoming a target.

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Bullying cultures are guided by unwritten rules of behavior and maintain fixed inner and outer groups. They often bond within groups, not through healthy, productive friendships, but through their collective dislike of certain people or policies.

So, instead of forming relationships through pro-social involvement, such as partnering on creative projects or sharing healthy hobbies outside of work, they seek connection through their shared dislike of a particular person or practice.

In such cultures, the inner group holds power and targets individuals who are out of the self-imposed rule book. Targets of abuse are often victims of one or more of the following three causes, all of which are great skills and qualities any ethical organization would seek:

The goal is overly productive, thus resetting the status quo, the goal is innovative in its thinking thus encouraging a re-evaluation of outdated practices, or the goal advocates unethical behavior thus exposing systemic problems the organization would prefer to hide.

These groups may be led by individuals in formal positions of authority, such as a department head or vice president, or they may exercise what researchers refer to as counter-authority, in which those in formal positions of authority, such as a manager or manager, are bullied by subordinates (Christensen et al., 2020).

Contra power is especially dangerous because those in a position to make positive changes to the current toxic culture are pushed out or simply forced to acquiesce to move forward in conformity, thus perpetuating the problem.

So, if bullying is truly a cultural problem at work rather than an individual problem, what can organizations do to help eradicate workplace abuse? The research points to three solutions.

How to eliminate bullying in the workplace: 3 strategies

1. Implement multi-source feedback loops.
   Comments tend to shrink. Deans evaluate professors, principals evaluate teachers, and nursing directors evaluate nurses. Such assessments are often one-sided and focus on a single moment in time.

In other words, professors are rarely asked to rate their leadership team, teachers are not usually given opportunities to give feedback to principals, and principals are rarely evaluated by those they manage.

On the other hand, multi-source feedback invites each employee to be evaluated by the circle of people affected by their work and leadership. Such a design holds employees accountable for the influence of their decision-making and leadership style and opens up opportunities for them to grow based on these assessments by, under, and with the people, they work with (Francois et al., 2018).

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2. Gather information about employees’ experiences at work as they relate to bullying.
   While the #MeToo movement has helped employees and employers make strides in identifying and addressing sexual harassment, workplace bullying continues to run underground, resulting in some employees suffering months or years of workplace abuse before addressing their experience.

Tools such as the NAQ-R, or Revised Adverse Action Questionnaire, developed at Bergen Bullying Research Group, can be administered by an expert in the field to read the workplace climate. The NAQ-R consists of a series of 22 questions that address abuse in the workplace.

The tool assesses the frequency of bullying behaviors experienced on the job such as withholding resources, removal of responsibility, and exposure to ongoing criticism. For each item, participants indicate one of the following: never, sometimes, monthly, weekly, or daily. (Seraphin et al., 2020).

3. Write a group policy for workplace bullying.
   Unlike sexual harassment in the United States, legislation, as it relates to workplace bullying, is only about protections such as race, gender, and religion. Therefore, research indicates that HR departments are often reluctant to address employee concerns related to bullying.

Moreover, because many HR officials report to upper management, who are often the source of bullying, those who speak up may be ignored, silenced, or retaliated against.

To address these concerns, organizations must establish clear bullying policies that include specific examples of what constitutes abuse on the job. Furthermore, it is imperative that employees who fear retaliation be given opportunities to report abuses either through anonymous helplines or to a department outside Human Resources, a line created specifically to protect the dignity of all workers.

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In addition, organizations should require regular bullying awareness training that addresses what the bullying cycle looks like, the tactics used most frequently, and the procedures that must be followed to report abuse without fear of reprimand (Kwan, 2011). Organizations, such as the National Workplace Bullying Coalition, can provide companies with the support needed to develop workplace policies that ensure dignity on the job.

In conclusion, workplace bullying is, in essence, a cultural phenomenon that appears in organizations that condone or encourage toxic behaviors such as gossip, manipulation, exclusion, sabotage, and unethical decision-making.